The most outstanding example was the award in 2011 of a US$103 million contract for pipeline security to Global West a company headed by an ex-militant leader High Chief Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo...
Now Tompolo is at the centre of a new row over his company's purchase of seven high-speed and recently rearmed Hauk-class ships...
Officials in Jonathan's government have been making payments of billions of naira to former militants such as Tompolo Asari Ateke Tom and Victor Ben Ebikabowei alias Boyloaf (AC Vol 51 No 25 The war against the amnesty)...
Jonathan's circle commends Tompolo for handing over some of his weapons but he has kept most for staff working on the pipeline security contract...
As the biggest ex-militant and security entrepreneur in the Delta Tompolo would play a key role in such a scheme although officials might struggle to persuade some of his less financially successful militant rivals to join it...
Norwegian ship saleMeanwhile the mystery lingers concerning Norway's sale of seven refitted warships to Tompolo's Global West ostensibly for anti-piracy operations...
In January Tompolo called a secret meeting in Asaba Delta State of MEND commanders to discuss the support of some of their number for Buhari and the APC in the elections...
The ambiguous relations between politically favoured former militants such as Tompolo and the Nigerian navy has been attracting some attention from the United States Department of Defense...
) to Government Ekpemupolo 'Tompolo'; N1...
Also in 2011 Jonathan awarded Tompolo's Global West Vessel Specialists Limited a N15 bn...
Tompolo then handed over some of his militia's weaponry to the government as required under the terms of the amnesty but kept back the vast majority claiming it was required for work on the pipeline security contract...
Tompolo has emerged as the most financially successful so far; his rivals would want to see similar commercial benefits from agreeing to controls over the flow of arms...
The naira billionaire and former MEND commander High Chief Government Ekpemupolo ('Tompolo') – who made headlines last year when he purchased a N2...
Today some former militant leaders such as High Chief Government Ekpemupolo ‘Tompolo’ have won multimillion-dollar security contracts in the Delta...
Delta men High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo) used to live in guerrilla camps in the Delta’s creeks where led the rebels of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta...
After amnesty negotiations by the present government thousands of militants set aside their arms and Tompolo is now in the President’s kitchen cabinet...
The influence is growing of High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo) whose bunkering operations brought a small war to the Warri region (AC Vol 50 No 11)...
In support of Jonathan High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (‘Tompolo’) finds his power growing daily...
One source said Tompolo had backed the award of the Kurutie Land project to El Markem Ventures his preferred bidder; the former Minister for the Niger Delta Ufot Ekaette had initially awarded the contract to a rival company...
Chief Mike Johnny complains that Tompolo and his set get the most lucrative contracts in the Gbaramatu kingdom the heartland of the Ijaw the Delta’s largest minority group...
Ijaw elders opted to award the Bomadi Foreshore Protection contract to another favoured Tompolo company...
Kuku’s appointment was welcomed by High Chief Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo the most prominent MEND leader in the Delta in the absence of Henry Okah who is on trial in South Africa on arms-trafficking charges...
Attacking Tompolo’s base In May last year Gbaramatu town near Warri in neighbouring Bayelsa suffered an unprecedented military onslaught against the base of High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo)...
Tompolo a commander of the loose network called the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) was also selling arms internationally and helped local politicians and shipping companies to negotiate ransoms with kidnappers...
Gbaramatu was seen as the heartland of Ijaw nationalism and Tompolo was poised to install his own candidate as its Paramount Chief...
Tompolo officially part of the amnesty programme for former fighters pursues his business interests...
‘He cannot come to this camp to recruit anybody’ Sango Anthony formerly of Deadly Underdog Camp Delta State but now of Tompolo Camp told Nigeria’s Daily Trust on 6 December...
Another former fighter in Tompolo Camp Emmanuel Amazen backed the amnesty but wants the federal government to fulfil all its promises to communities that ‘are still in tatters’...
Togo who is one of Tompolo’s former lieutenants complains that the militant top dog is eating all the scraps thrown from the government’s table...
On 11 November Tompolo met Togo and other former comrades including Shoot-at-Sight Young Shall Grow and Egbema with Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan as an observer...
He completed his secondary education and during the Itsekiri/Ijaw war he fought under High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) for the armed irredentists of the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities...
When the Itsekiri-Ijaw war ended Togo left Tompolo and with one ‘Ati’ formed a gang of sea pirates and kidnappers preying on poor traders and fisherfolk along the western Delta’s waterways and creeks...
This carnage in his area angered Tompolo whose fighters tried several times to kill Ati...
In revenge Ati raided Oporozoa where Tompolo and his boys were camped killing more than a dozen of them before himself being killed while trying to get away...
Togo increased his piratical activities along the waterways despite Tompolo’s efforts...